Qara Qoyunlu

The Qara Qoyunlu were a Shia Oghuz Turkic federation that ruled the lands of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and small parts of the Levant, Asia Minor, and Iran from 1375 to 1468. Also known as the Black Sheep Turkmen, the Qara Qoyunlu once ruled from the city of Herat in Afghanistan. The Timurids invaded Afghanistan and forced the Qara Qoyunlu to flee to Egypt, but in 1406 the Qara Qoyunlu recaptured Tabriz after the death of Timur, and in 1410 they took Baghdad. The Qara Qoyunlu went on to conquer Armenia in 1410 and Iraq, Azerbaijan, and western Iran from the remnants of the Timurids, establishing themselves as a mighty Turkic empire. In 1466, Qara Qoyunlu ruler Jahan Shah made the mistake of attempting to take Diyarbakir from the Aq Qoyunlu of Syria and eastern Turkey, and the Qara Qoyunlu - already weakened by civil warfare - were conquered by the "White Sheep Turkmen".